I’ve been saying for a while now that there’ll be news about a third book in this series soon. Well, here is that long-promised update, and thank you for your patience in the meantime.
So what’s been going on? Well, last year, and before Scorpions in Corinth was even published, Orion Books decided they had no further interest in this series. I’ll spare you the dispiriting details, and will simply say this had nothing to do with me or the actual books. As you’ll recall, readers and reviewers thoroughly enjoyed them!
Not so very long ago, that would have been that. However, new formats and new technology are offering new possibilities for readers and writers alike. Canelo is a publishing house that’s been making the most of these opportunities since 2015, offering an array of excellent fiction. So I am delighted to tell you they will be reissuing Shadows of Athens and Scorpions in Corinth on 24th September 2020. A new novel in this series, Justice for Athena, will follow on 15th October 2020.
These will be ebooks only for the moment. Canelo started with a digital-only list, and while they have been moving into print editions for selected titles, that programme, like so much else, has been affected by the commercial impact of the pandemic. Caution is the current watchword across the publishing industry until the situation becomes less volatile. Once that happens, we can all hope to see these novels as paperbacks on book shop shelves.
With regard to audiobooks, conversations are ongoing, and I’ll share any news on that format as and when I have it.
For the moment, let’s admire these dramatic new covers from Canelo. Tell your friends this is the ideal time to catch up with Philocles’ investigations before he finds himself hunting another killer…
I am very happy that a third book is being published and very unhappy that, for now at least, it is only in ebook form. I can’t read more than a page electronically without getting a splitting headache. Oh well I will watch and hope.
You’re by no means the only reader who would prefer an actual book, and making those available was always the original plan. It’s certainly what I wanted, and as soon as it’s a realistic proposition, we’ll be setting things in motion.
For context, the trade press this morning is reporting that one of the largest book wholesalers, Bertrams, who are now in administration, has just £600,000 to pay debts to publishers, in a “statement of affairs” published on Companies House this week. The statement shows 2,500 trade creditors are owed a total of £25m. Those will include a lot of small presses who currently have no idea whether they’ll ever see their books again, or any of the money they’re owed. This sort of thing is making the whole book business very cautious.